Best Electrolyte Powder

All of us know that we need to stay hydrated, but we don't always do a good job of it. A 2015 study found that more than 50% of children (aged 6-19) don't drink enough water for their needs,1 while other research suggests that chronic dehydration affects up to 28% of older adults.2 Hydration is about more than just drinking water, though. Your body also needs electrolytes to retain fluids, balance them, and keep the body going. Given the connection between hydration and electrolytes, it follows that a lot of us need more of the latter.

Electrolyte supplements exist to fill in our deficiencies, with powders being one of the most popular forms. Typically sweetened, flavored, and packaged for portability, they present a convenient solution for a widespread concern.

In this guide, we examine what we've determined to be the best electrolyte powders on the market and discuss the critical role that electrolytes play in your day-to-day lives.

Check out our summary of recommendations for the quickest reference. Then read further to learn how we made our picks.

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions involving staying healthy and living healthier lifestyles.

We've spent thousands of hours researching and testing a wide variety of fitness supplements. For our guide to the best electrolyte powders, we examined the subject from multiple angles. First, we identified the various populations that an electrolyte powder would best serve, along with their primary requirements and optimal levels. Then, after determining which contenders held the best potential to provide what consumers needed, we ordered and tried the products for ourselves. Throughout the process, we studied the broad role that electrolytes and related nutrients play in human health. All told, we consulted more than 70 studies, reviews, and other informational sources.

Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this review was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy.

Our evaluation criteria for the best electrolyte powders address factors that consumers normally consider when purchasing any supplement (effectiveness, safety, cost, and customer support) but also some that pertain more narrowly to powders (taste and solubility).

Let's see how our top recommendations fared in each category.

Effectiveness

Winner: Primal Harvest Primal Hydration

We selected Primal Hydration as our winner for effectiveness based largely on the findings of two scientific studies on electrolyte loss. One study recommended consuming 300-600mg of sodium per hour during prolonged exercise;3 the other, 200-400mg of sodium for outdoor labor.4 Primal, with 400mg of sodium per serving, is the only brand on our list that falls within both ranges, thus satisfying replenishment needs in two large classes of electrolyte supplement users.

It also delivers in other areas. Apart from sodium, Primal provides three additional key electrolytes in decent doses:

• Calcium (23mg): sufficient to replace the approximately 20mg commonly lost in heavy sweating conditions5
• Magnesium (50mg): more than enough to cover for the roughly 1.0-3.6mg per hour lost to sweat6
• Potassium (350mg): the highest potassium quantity among our recommendations, and a fair replacement for the 500-1,000mg lost to sweat7

Now, we want to make clear that being our winner for Effectiveness isn't really the same as being the "best electrolyte powder." What it means is we felt one brand could most easily replenish electrolyte loss in the broadest possible population without going overboard.

It also means that our other recommendations aren't "worse"; they're just better suited for more specific uses:

• Ultima provides a broader range of electrolytes with less sodium and higher quantities of calcium and magnesium, so it's great as a regular beverage for helping users obtain their daily electrolyte intake levels.
• Transparent Labs includes taurine and SenActiv, ingredients that can improve endurance during a workout and recovery afterward.
• LMNT is particularly sodium-rich, so it's our recommendation for users who need a more drastic replenishment.

We discuss each product's merits in its dedicated brand section later in this review.

Safety

Winners: LMNT and Ultima Replenisher

Safety was a tricky criterion to navigate because the brand with the best pedigree delivers more sodium than would be healthy for the average American.

The brand in question is LMNT.

In terms of manufacturing practices, LMNT is roughly on par with Primal and Transparent Labs, only a little better. Here's what we mean:

• All three companies perform third-party testing, an important measure for verifying potency and quality, but only LMNT and Transparent Labs provide certificates of analysis to prove it or have facilities certified by the NSF, verifying compliance with strict standards and procedures.8
• Between Transparent Labs and LMNT, only the latter acknowledges testing at multiple production stages — raw materials, blends, and finished products.
• LMNT is the only brand on our list whose facilities have Safe Quality Food (SQF) certification to validate food safety and quality management.9
• LMNT vets suppliers and ingredients to ensure safety and sanitizes equipment between production runs to avoid cross-contamination with allergens.
• LMNT also tests for nine common allergens: milk, soy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat/gluten, fish, shellfish, and sesame.

We not only admire but respect the lengths to which LMNT goes to keep their customers safe. But then there's the matter of sodium.

Sodium is integral to the brand's identity (its slogans include "Stay Salty" and "More Salt, Not Less"), but seeing as the average American consumes more salt than they should,10 we can't say LMNT's powders are generally safe on a nutrient level. That is, you shouldn't be sipping on an LMNT product unless you really need it (e.g., after strenuous activity or an illness).

The only brand on our list that we'd recommend as being safe as a daily drink is Ultima Replenisher, even though the company doesn't attest to any third-party testing. Its formulation is so modest, particularly with regard to sodium, that it presents the least risk of hypernatremia (high sodium levels).

Cost

Winner: Ultima Replenisher

Here's an area in which Ultima Replenisher clearly wins. Most products in the company's lineup cost only $20.99 as one-time purchases and $18.89 as subscriptions (equal to $0.63-$1.05 per serving, depending on the product). The company's most expensive item is $40.49-$44.99, but it's a 90-serving canister of powder ($0.45-$0.50 per serving). The closest cost competitor on an approximate serving-to-serving basis is Transparent Labs Hydrate, which costs $26.99-$29.99 for 40 servings.

Primal Harvest and LMNT are on the higher end of the cost spectrum. Generally, Primal costs $35.96-$44.95 for 30 servings, and LMNT is $39-$45.

Value is relative, so we can't determine for you whether each price point reflects the brand's worth to you. All we can say is that Ultima Replenisher gets you key electrolytes with a very low financial bar to clear.

Taste

Winners: LMNT and Ultima Replenisher

LMNT and Ultima are our co-winners for taste. We present two very different winners here for a couple of reasons: first, because these winners emerged from two separate taste-testing experiences; and second, because this outcome illustrates the subjectivity of taste, as well as the reality that what tastes best will probably depend to a large extent on individual circumstances and how often you consume the beverage.

To provide you with the most balanced perspective on the matter, we drew from the taste-testing experiences of our primary testing team of three people (we'll call them Group 1) along with a second group of three (Group 2) whose experiences have been very different.

Group 1 (our in-house testers) are relative newcomers to electrolyte powders. They ordered numerous products as an introduction to the subject in advance of writing the guide. Here's what they tasted:

• Primal Hydration — available in just one flavor, Lemon-Berry
• Ultima Replenisher Original Variety Pack (Raspberry, Grape, Lemonade, Orange, and Cherry Pomegranate)
• Transparent Labs in Raspberry Lemonade
• LMNT in Citrus Salt

Group 2, meanwhile, is a family of long-time electrolyte powder users, including two adults and one child in his early teens. The parents are busy professionals who eat a healthy diet and exercise when they can, while their child is heavily involved in competitive sport. Over the course of years, they've tried practically every electrolyte powder — and flavor — under the sun, including those in Group 1's testing series.

For the newcomers in Group 1, LMNT was tops because it has the boldest, tangiest, and most up-front flavor profile of the bunch. In their opinion, the brand's characteristic saltiness is balanced by its sweetness in such a way that isn't overpowering in either direction. Primal was their runner-up because it, too, has a tangy flavor profile.

The family, however, gravitate toward Ultima and love the flavor. They also like Primal but not quite as much. The primary reason for them vying for Ultima rather than Primal was their sense that Primal tastes "a bit too much like a sports drink" and contains too much sodium for their daily-use purpose and activity level.

Our taste-testing was an extensive process that involved too many important minute details we can reasonably discuss here. Therefore, we’ve included a section in the guide’s latter half that covers it in more detail (“Our in-house testing methods”).

Solubility

Winner: LMNT

The ideal powder dissolves easily in the label-recommended liquid measurement, leaving no clumps or sediment. Of course, there's usually a disparity between the ideal and the reality, but we found that LMNT did the best job of bridging it.

Whether shaken or stirred, LMNT Citrus Salt left behind zero clumps and the least visible sediment at the bottom of the drinking container. Transparent Labs performed second-best, perhaps — no clumps and fairly little sediment, but the sediment was course. Primal had some clumping but not too much sediment. Ultima clumped a bit, too, and its sediment covered the bottom of its container, as you can see here.

Here, again, the testing process had a lot of ins and outs that don’t rightly belong in a summary. For more insights into our mixing tests, see “Our in-house testing methods” later in this review.

Customer support

Winners: Ultima Replenisher and LMNT

Hands down, Ultima Replenisher and LMNT provided the best support experiences. With each attempt to reach out to their respective teams, we were able to get through immediately via chat widget and get our answers in less than a minute. No waiting to connect to a representative. No equivocating. Just friendly, straight-to-the-point interactions.

Transparent Labs takes runner-up status. Although it's the only brand without an online chat widget and the reps tended not to answer forthrightly, at least the answers always came within 24 hours.

The only brand whose support we earnestly disliked was Primal Harvest. "Unresponsive" is the most neutral term for our interactions, such as they were. Every attempt with the chat widget was fruitless. The same with email. Not until we called by phone did we get results. Bear that in mind if you want Primal to answer your questions or acknowledge your return request.

The table below lays out all of our top recommended electrolyte powders across key selling points. The prices exclude any available bundling options and don't account for shipping charges.

Electrolytes, found in various foods and fluids, are essential substances for basic life functions. Specifically, they're ions, or atoms with electrical charges. When you consume an electrolyte, it dissolves in your body's fluids (e.g., blood) and emits a positive charge (cation) or a negative one (anion). The electrical charges signal different bodily functions, like muscle contractions and nerve messaging.11 The term "electrolyte" itself points to this underlying mechanism: "electro-" referring to electricity and "-lyte" indicating decomposition by way of something.

Over the years, through product marketing (and at least a couple of movies), you've probably learned that your body craves electrolytes and that water alone isn't enough to hydrate you. And that's true; among their various functions, which we discuss in the next section, electrolytes help your body absorb water, retain the water it has, and prevent too much of it from being lost through natural processes (e.g., urination, sweating).12

Electrolyte powders add electrolytes to your body. Just by mixing a powder into a liquid and drinking the liquid, you have a fresh supply of essential ions. In your body, they dissolve in fluids like blood and water and thereby conduct electrical charges.

Different electrolytes perform different ranges of functions. Here, let's discuss what the main ones do:13

In any discussion about electrolyte products, Gatorade is the lightning bolt–emblazoned elephant in the room. Though it wasn't the world's first performance energy beverage — that distinction goes to U.K.-born Glucozade — Gatorade did popularize hydration as a market niche and almost certainly introduced the term "electrolyte" to the general consumer population. The brand has a status that invites us to discuss its absence among our recommendations.

Gatorade's vast product lineup includes powders, which themselves span numerous variations suited to different needs. It also has sugar-free tablets, whose dissolve-in-water action is enough to meet this guide's parameters. Both the powders and the tablets are generally good but fall short of our conditions for being recommendable. Here's why:

We want to make clear that Gatorade absolutely has its merits. To say the least, the products usually taste great, the powders dissolve better than any other that we've tried, and you can't beat the brand's near-worldwide accessibility. Should you find yourself dry without your usual electrolyte powder at hand, then Gatorade will serve you well in a pinch. But for the best results, we encourage you to use products that stand to yield the best results with the least likelihood of harm to your health.

Electrolyte powders are best suited to people who are at risk for electrolyte deficiency, which is a larger population than you might realize. In 2013, a study of more than 5,000 subjects aged 55 or older found that 15% had at least one electrolyte disorder, the majority of which were deficits, not excesses.38

The study also identified deficits of specific electrolytes linked to certain population subsets. It's true that some people have a higher risk of deficiency owing to various factors. Below are common risk factors for electrolyte deficiency. If any of them apply to you, you'd do well to keep an electrolyte powder in your supplement rotation:

Even if you count yourself among the prime-candidate populations for electrolyte powders, we urge you to speak with a healthcare professional before adding any of our recommended products to your regimen. Your medical history or a physical workup may reveal a health issue that contraindicates the sort of high-level replenishment such products provide.

Moreover, if you get the all-clear, be careful not to over-consume the powder you buy. While some of our recommendations (like Ultima) are mild enough to accommodate multiple servings a day, others (like LMNT) should be used more sparingly.

Who shouldn’t use electrolyte powder?

Like all supplements, electrolyte powders aren't always suitable for certain populations owing to potential adverse effects. Based on the available science, we recommend that you avoid electrolyte powders, or at least exercise caution, if you:

Also, if you already get enough electrolytes for your lifestyle through diet and common fluids, then you have no reason to get more from a supplement. In fact, supplemental electrolytes could throw off your body's balance, and you don't want that.

Electrolyte powders are generally safe for healthy individuals since the body needs electrolytes. Unless you have a contraindicated health condition or get sufficient electrolytes in other ways, you probably won't experience adverse events by way of a supplemental source.

But to be more specific, we have to examine electrolyte powders on a brand-to-brand basis.

Some products are higher in certain electrolytes that pose a greater risk for overconsumption, namely sodium. Recall that most people should keep their daily sodium intake within a 1,500-2,300mg range;17 18 the thing is, on average, Americans consume more than 3,300mg,10 which is a whole gram above the UL. To be sure, sodium toxicity occurs with single massive ingestions,51 so it's unlikely to occur so long as you spread your intake over a day's course, but high sodium levels in general are associated with serious health risk factors. The short-term effects are puffiness, bloating, and weight gain; in the long term, you develop higher risks for serious health concerns such as hypertension, heart failure, kidney disease, stroke, and cancer.52

The other main electrolytes present less danger, but dangers are present nonetheless. That's particularly true with calcium. While hypercalcemia (high calcium level) is rare among people, it can more easily arise in those who:53

• Have too much calcium or vitamin D
• Have certain cancers
• Have a condition that affects the body's calcium regulation
• Have certain diseases (e.g., hyperparathyroidism, tuberculosis, sarcoidosis, Paget's disease)
• Take certain medicines (e.g., diuretics, lithium)

A final safety consideration to acknowledge is the inclusion of other, non-electrolyte ingredients that can be hazardous to smaller population subsets. A good example here is coconut water powder. Coconuts are tree nuts, so if you're allergic to other tree nuts, then you could be allergic to coconut water powder. We say "could" because coconut allergies are, to quote one allergist, "reasonably rare.”54 However, when it comes to one's risk of anaphylaxis, you want to be certain one way or the other, so anyone who has the potential to be allergic to coconuts should either avoid products like Transparent Labs Hydrate and Primal Hydration, or else get clearance from their doctor.

Before you go into the dedicated brand sections, we thought it would help if we provided some insight into how we taste- and mix-tested our top recommended electrolyte powder brands, and how each one performed according to our Group 1 testers.

Tasting

Because our three uninitiated in-house testers were novices in the electrolyte powders market, they tried to come to the most objective conclusions possible by standardizing their experience as best they could. Specifically, they:

• Used filtered 40-degree water for each powder
• Weighed water measurements to the lowest label-recommended amount
• Labeled each drink
• Blinded the labels with covers
• Took sips of plain water between each flavor

In the end, all three in-house testers agreed that the two tangiest drinks were their favorites. They peeled back the label covers and saw they were LMNT and Primal.

About LMNT’s taste — oh gosh, the taste. It's salty, yes, but in a good way. Salty in the way a margarita can be salty. It enthusiastically slaps the taste buds with sweet-and-sour high-fives and keeps them good company on a porch in summer. As with all matters of taste, LMNT isn't for everyone, but if you cotton to anything sour, it could be for you.

In comparison, Primal, our runner-up, was more like Crystal Light lemonade married with Gatorade Lemon Lime, two things that each tester grew up enjoying. It's less of a flavor wallop than LMNT but still just a pleasure to imbibe. One tester — we'll name them "Jo" — was especially surprised by their favorable opinion of Primal because they dislike coconut water and Primal contains 750mg of coconut water powder. "You can't even taste the stuff," they said.

With Ultima, the group's overall response was mild. The flavors were agreeable, but they had a sort of diluted quality when mixed according to label directions. The Grape and Orange flavors drew comparisons to Hugs Fruit Barrels — not bad, but not enough oomph to pop. Raspberry, Lemonade, and Cherry Pomegranate were received more positively, likely owing to their tangier profiles. (Of course, having a less in-your-face flavor profile is part of why Ultima lends itself well to regular use, so our testers could well understand why our second testing group, the family, prefers Ultima to other brands.)

Transparent Labs fared the worst in our taste testing, with only one person saying they liked it. It's the only other brand on our list with coconut water powder, and "Jo" could tell. The other naysayer said it felt too "creamy" on the palate, a quality that probably stems from the coconut water, too. Coincidentally, the creaminess is what the only yeasayer liked about Transparent Labs; in their opinion, it acted as a bridge between the stevia and the berry/lemonade character. It was "balanced" that way. Probably the key takeaway is this: If you don't like coconut water, you probably wouldn't enjoy Transparent Labs Hydrate.

We want to reiterate that taste is hugely subjective. Clearly, our testers gravitate toward strong, tangy flavors, but you might prefer something more muted, like Ultima, or "creamy," like Transparent Labs. At least one tester liked everything they tried, so there's evidently something to recommend about each of them.

Mixing

For our solubility testing, we decided on a two-part battery:

• Shake test: manual five-second agitation in a lidded glass container
• Stir test: manual ten-second agitation in a glass with a metal spoon

Also, so that we could again standardize the testing as much as possible, the water we used for each powder was filtered and chilled to around 40 degrees Fahrenheit. We would've liked to use the same measure of water for each brand, but then we figured it would be fairer to heed label directions. When the directions included a range of measurements, we went with the lower end.

Here are the results:

You may have noticed that LMNT recommends using more water than the others do. We considered maybe that had something to do with its superior solubility. So we ran a second testing phase, increasing the water measurement to 16fl oz for Ultima, Primal, and Transparent Labs. The results were pretty much the same as the first go-around.

Best for most athletes; runner-up for taste

Primal Harvest is a health and wellness company whose catalog includes over two dozen products. Primal Hydration is its only contribution to the hydration/electrolytes space and the product we feel is best suited for most electrolyte loss.

Earlier, we discussed the research into ideal ranges of sodium replenishment for two activities associated with electrolyte loss — 300-600mg of sodium per hour of prolonged exercise and 200-400mg for outdoor labor3 4 — as well as common amounts of other electrolytes lost to sweat:5 6 7

• 20mg of calcium per hour
• 1.0-3.6mg of magnesium per hour
• 500-1,000mg of potassium per day, or around 20-40mg per hour

Primal Hydration's formulation is balanced in such a way that it delivers these key electrolytes either within ideal ranges or at levels that overcompensate for losses without approaching dangerous levels — 400mg of sodium, 23mg of calcium, 50mg of magnesium, and 350mg of potassium per serving. Transparent Labs provides similar doses (or greater ones in some respects), but its sodium is a bit beyond the range for outdoor labor and has other ingredients best suited for working out.

The Primal formulation also contains vitamins C, B3, B6, and B12, as well as coconut water powder.

The vitamins are there to improve energy, as fatigue correlates with sweat-inducing conditions.55 At least one review, published in 2020, concludes there's a strong rationale to support their use for "functional and physiological outcomes in humans, including perceived physical and mental fatigue."56 The energizing effects aren't direct but more related to facilitating biochemical processes that help your body use the energy it has.

The coconut water powder is less promising in its use as a hydration booster. It certainly has hydrating properties because it contains electrolytes, but coconut water itself is no more hydrating than other replenishers.57

Our Primal Harvest customer experience

Our Primal Harvest order came speedily within four business days. The company uses branded packaging that, frankly, looks quite good: a fern-colored mailer with images of a berry plant, a needly evergreen sprig, and other such idyllic adornments. Primal deals in supplements, however, and probably a lot of supplement users would prefer discreet packaging so as not to give away the contents of their mail.

Another preference that people tend to have is responsive customer service. Unfortunately for Primal's customers, the support is lacking. The short version of our experience is this: Use your phone if you want a response. Otherwise, you may find yourself in a situation like ours:

We commend the representatives on Primal's phone line for their fast and excellent help, but we wish the online support were more responsive. According to at least one survey, 60% of U.K. customers prefer online tools to telephonic support for resolving their customer service issues,58 and if the findings can be extrapolated to the U.S. population, we imagine that most Primal Harvest customers will have a hard time getting the answers they need.

Pricing and subscriptions

At $44.95 as a one-time purchase, Primal Hydration is the second-most expensive electrolyte powder on our list in terms of base price. A single bag contains 30 servings, so the per-serving cost adds up to around $1.50. When you account for the roughly $5 shipping charge, the price tag is $50 for the bag (around $1.70 per serving) and surpasses LMNT's stick packs in cost. A subscription, however, activates an ample 20% discount and unlocks free shipping; the resulting $35.96 price tag (around $1.20 per serving) then becomes the second-most affordable option.

Primal is our only recommendation that offers bundling, and the choices are pretty vast. There are three tiers, each reducing the per-bag base price by $3. This table lays out the pricing before shipping, with costs rounded up to the nearest cent:

You can bundle subscriptions, too, but with no additional savings. For the most part, subscription bundles are only sensible for households with multiple regular users.

However large your subscription order, the available delivery intervals are every one, two, and three months, the same variety as offered by Ultima. The available intervals are the most versatile up-front delivery options on our list. LMNT lets you choose from a wider range, but you need to establish a subscription before you can, while Transparent Labs' 15-, 30-, and 45-day options are awkward relative to common usage.

Returns and refunds

Primal Harvest's 90-day money-back guarantee is the second-best on our list. The only one that's more generous is LMNT's.

If you're not satisfied with your Primal Harvest order, for any reason, all you have to do is contact the customer support team by email, chat widget, or telephone and tell them what you want to return. Remember to have your order number at hand.

Single-bottle orders are eligible for full refunds even if you've opened and used the product. For bundles, there are some caveats. If it's your first order, the entire bundle is refundable if only one item is unopened. For subsequent bundle orders, only the unopened items are eligible for full refunds.

Best for everyday use and people on a budget; co-winner for taste

Ultima, our pick for everyday use and budget-conscious consumers, provides almost every main electrolyte we discussed in an earlier section ("How do electrolyte powders work?"):

• Sodium (55mg)
• Potassium (250mg)
• Magnesium (100mg)
• Calcium (65mg)
• Phosphorous (70mg)
• Chloride (78mg)

Primal and Transparent Labs include the first four, and LMNT has the first three, but only Ultima delivers on the last two.

The sodium content is very modest, especially for an electrolyte supplement, which is both a pro and a con.

Sodium, after all, is probably the most important electrolyte the body sheds during perspiration.58 In acute sweat-loss circumstances, like exercise or outdoor labor, you need a fairly hefty dose to replenish what you've lost. In that regard, Ultima's 55mg dose comes up short.

On the other hand, you have to remember that sodium makes up an oversize share of nutrients in the average American diet, and high blood sodium levels can severely harm vital organs like the heart and the kidneys. With that in mind, along with the wider range of electrolyte types, you can begin to see how Ultima can be a great option for people who want to obtain key substances for bodily function without putting their health in danger. Unlike Primal, Transparent Labs, and especially LMNT, it can easily work as a regular supplement, something you use daily and not reactively.

An area where Ultima bounds over the competition is flavor variety. Currently, the company offers electrolyte powders in:

The one downside is that some flavors are available only in certain product forms. The three Mocktini flavors come only in 90-serving canisters; Tropical Fusion is exclusive to Ultima's Crave Killer, a powder formulated with 600mcg of chromium picolinate (a subclinical dose for curbing hunger);59 and the last two can be had only in the Mocktini Variety Pack. We're talking about a very minor downside, though. All told, Ultima's variety beats even LMNT's impressive nine-flavor lineup.

Our Ultima Replenisher customer experience

Good news for people who prefer keeping their mail discreet: Ultima doesn't do branded packaging. Our order came in a plain USPS mailer, and only the sender's line (hardly visible from curious-neighbor distance) could suggest its contents.

Regarding customer support, Ultima was the only company on our list whose support team we didn't feel the need to interact with. The knowledge hub is refreshingly thorough and unambiguous, absent any hazy wording that begs for clarification.

Still, for consistency's sake, we reached out with a question via the chat widget, and we're happy to say the experience was fast and smooth. We connected immediately with a representative — no automated links to knowledge hubs, here — and got a straightforward answer in practically no time.

(In case you're curious, we asked whether we needed to send a printout of our invoice to complete a return or whether we could just write down our order number on a piece of paper. Turns out, you can just write it down on a piece of paper.)

Pricing and subscriptions

Ultima Replenisher is easily the most budget-friendly electrolyte powder on our list. The price you pay depends somewhat on the product type and size; most are the same, with the per-serving costs representing the greatest disparities. The table below lays out the pricing for one-time purchases and subscriptions across the product line. Where applicable, prices have been rounded up to the nearest cent.

You can see that even at its most expensive, Ultima costs less than LMNT's stick packs at their one-time base price. To wit, the 90-serving canister — which, it should be emphasized, provides 2.25-3 times as many servings as the other powders on our list — is a cent less, and the per-serving cost is two-thirds less. Compared to Transparent Labs, our runner-up for cost, you're looking at paying around $10 less up front and at least around $0.20-$0.25 less per serving, and that's before we account for the near-$8 shipping you put up for Hydrate.

To sweeten the matter, your first Ultima order is eligible for a 20% discount if you sign up for marketing emails. Our own order was discounted as much even though we didn't sign up, and we're not complaining; we just wish we knew why we got the discount, so we could tell you.

Ultima's available delivery intervals are 30, 60, and 90 days. It's effectively the same as Primal's, only worded differently.

Returns and refunds

Ultima has a 60-day satisfaction guarantee, effective from the purchase date. It isn't as long as Primal's but sure beats Transparent Labs'. Refunds are eligible on items purchased through Ultima as well as authorized resellers. Both used and unused items qualify, though not expired ones. The process begins with emailing or calling Ultima's Customer Care team. For used items, you may have to send back the used portion at your expense.

Best electrolyte powder for physical performance

Transparent Labs as a company centers on creating formulations for physical performance, strength training in particular. The 500mg of sodium in its Hydrate supplement is ideal for that end. So are its additions of two other ingredients:

In addition to sodium, taurine, and SenActiv, Transparent Labs delivers calcium, magnesium, and potassium in quantities that support physical performance in terms of muscle function and recovery:64 65 66

• Calcium: 84mg — highest on our list
• Magnesium: 50mg
• Potassium: 250mg

Also, like Ultima and LMNT, the Hydrate formula is available in multiple flavors (Raspberry Lemon and Peach Mango are available only in travel stick form as of this writing, although we were able to get Raspberry Lemon as a bulk jar):

Our Transparent Labs customer experience

Add Transparent Labs to the list of companies that eschew branded packaging. Like Ultima, the company sent our order in a plain USPS mailer with only the sender's line to give away what's inside.

Our customer support experience was decent. We wanted to clarify a point in the company's refund policy. There's no chat widget on the site, so we had to send an email. The first response came less than 24 hours after our initial question, but it didn't answer our question, only repeated the "30-day satisfaction rule" already stated on the policy page. So we sent a follow-up question, and another sub-24 hours later, we got our answer.

Pricing and subscriptions

There's no price variation across the Hydrate line. Each flavor costs $29.99 as a one-timer and $26.99 as a subscription. We bought our Hydrate in a 40-serving bulk jar, which amounts to about $0.75 and $0.67 per serving, respectively; the new stick packs are available at the same up-front price but only 30 servings, so their per-serving costs are around $0.90-$0.99. Pretty good in either case. At least the base prices are modest enough to be the second-lowest on our list, and the per-serving costs traipse in Ultima territory.

The per-day use costs may be higher, though. The label recommends 1-3 servings per day. With a jar, a two-serving routine amounts to $1.35-$1.60 a day, and three daily servings equals $2.08-$2.30 plus a scant remainder in the container. With the travel sticks, it’s about $1.80-$1.99 for two servings a day, and $2.70-$2.99 for three.

Also, the price escalates at checkout with a list-topping $7.99 shipping charge. Once you account for that, only the subscription base price can claim runner-up status for cost.

And then the delivery intervals are peculiar. Your options are 15, 30, and 45 days. None of them correspond to the recommended serving sizes or the quantity in the jar form; and with travel sticks, only one- or two-a-day regimens would correspond, respectively, with the 15- and 30-day intervals. In most cases, you have either a surplus or a lack of supplement by the time your next auto-shipped order arrives. From where we stand, the weird interval structure doesn't quite incentivize long-term subscription maintenance.

Returns and refunds

With Transparent Labs, you have just 30 days from your delivery date to request a refund or exchange. It's the narrowest return window among all our recommended electrolyte powder brands. The policy includes opened and used items.

Best for significant electrolyte replenishment; co-winner for taste

LMNT's brand identity revolves around sodium. Every serving contains an astonishing 1,000mg of it, and even the company's slogans ("Stay Salty," "More Salt, Not Less") point to the fact.

Its high sodium content, along with its 200mg of potassium and 60mg of magnesium, makes LMNT the best reactively administered electrolyte supplement for people who experience high degrees of acute fluid loss, such as after strenuous exercise, outdoor work in harsh conditions, or a bout of diarrhea — instances in which you shed more electrolytes, especially sodium.

It's also particularly well suited to two populations that are often overlooked for electrolyte deficiencies:

The corollary is that LMNT is not suitable for anyone who consumes too much sodium without experiencing acute losses, as it can lead to hypernatremia and its attendant symptoms:

• Thirst
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Confusing
• Twitching
• Seizures

Unless treated, hypernatremia can cause you to become comatose and even be fatal.

So you have to be careful. Mind how much sodium you ingest. If you regularly meet or exceed the recommended range for sodium intake and don't sweat it off, you put yourself at risk.

To finish on a bright note, we should talk about LMNT's flavors. The variety isn't as vast as Ultima's, but several of the options are certainly more inventive. Take a look at the lineup (current as of fall of 2024):

Our LMNT customer experience

LMNT is the only other company on our list to use branded packaging. Whereas Primal's packaging is designed to be soft on the eye, LMNT takes a fittingly elemental approach with a stark white logo imprinted on a solidly black box. As mentioned, the product comes with a recipe booklet and sticker. The booklet's recipes are for nonalcoholic cocktail preparations you can make with different LMNT powders; none were entirely applicable or adaptable to the flavor we purchased, but we admit being encouraged to purchase the variety pack so we can try the cocktails for ourselves.

Another dissimilarity with Primal was the customer service experience. With LMNT, the chat widget wasn't just a viable path to resolving our questions but also a speedy one. A representative responded immediately and provided satisfactory answers within a minute. They were also charmingly on-brand, ending the interaction with "Have a great day and Stay Salty."

Pricing and subscriptions

LMNT's base prices are generally the highest on our list, even with the second-best subscription discount (around 13%). Here's a table to illustrate, again with prices rounded up to the nearest cent:

LMNT offers two options for sampling multiple flavors: the Variety Pack and INSIDER Bundle. The Variety Pack contains four preselected flavors, whereas the INSIDER Bundle lets you pick whole boxes of whatever flavors you want. You see from the table that INSIDER is the best-bang-for-buck option, having per-serving costs comparable to Ultima's variety packs and single-flavor sticks.

The Variety Pack and stick packs are closer to Transparent Lab's pricing per serving on a two-serving routine, as well as Primal's prices per serving after accounting for shipping. Also, if the two multi-flavor options are anything like the stick packs we tried, your order will include some fun merchandise: a recipe booklet and a sticker that reads "STAY SALTY."

On the downside, LMNT doesn't let you choose delivery intervals up front. You have to establish a subscription first, and then you can change the frequency in your account. But once you do, you can select anywhere from one to six months or just pause your subscription as needed. These options are more diverse than what Primal Harvest, Ultima, and Transparent Labs offer.

Returns and refunds

Now here's a huge upside.

According to customer support's response to our email, you have six months to initiate a return for a refund. It's the most generous return window on our list — twice as long as the runner-up, Primal Harvest, and 3-6 times as long as Ultima and Transparent Labs, respectively. What’s more, you don’t even have to return the product to get your refund.